Your Rights to Privacy in a Voyeuristic World

Facebook shares (FB) are sliding once again this morning. FB is now down -4.6% year-to-date after it was revealed that not only was it responsible for one of the biggest data breaches in history, but that it FB actually promoted, sold and ignored whistleblower warnings about apps harvesting your personal information.  

As one Twitter user put it: https://twitter.com/DowdEdward 

“Revenue was $3.7B in 2011, and over $40B in 2017. They had a 1 billion users then and now have 2 billion users. The question is revenues went up 11x while users went up 2x. Are we sure they just sell ad space?...🤔...I am guessing they sell data...your data!” 

This seems like a perfectly logical explanation for the 11x revenue spike. They put your PII (Personally Identifiable Information) up for sale to the highest bidder and are blaming apps that use the platform for using/selling your information. Doesn’t FB approve these apps?! 

Mark Z. has been making rounds on the interview talk shows of late trying to explain all of this to the public and investors and advertisers. He may soon have to try to explain it to Congress. Good luck with that and let the fireworks begin! If he gets subpoenaed it’s going to be ugly. 

WHAT IS STEEMIT DOING TO PROTECT YOU?

With all of this going on in the social media space, one has to wonder what SteemIt is doing to protect your identity. Here’s a great article on the challenges SteemIt faces with phishing and what you can do about it: https://steemit.com/technology/@jrswab/steem-phishing-what-you-need-to-know-to-stay-secure 

SteemIt also have a privacy policy. This is from 2016, not sure if there’s something more recent. https://steemit.com/privacy.html 

This section from the privacy policy seems all too relevant.  There’s always “exceptions”! 

14. We will not share, sell, or give away any of our users’ personal information to third parties, unless one of the following circumstances applies: 

· Except as it relates to advertisers and our ad partners, we may share information with vendors, consultants, and other service providers who need access to such information to carry out work for us; 

· If you participate in contests, sweepstakes, promotions, special offers, or other events or activities in connection with our Services, we may share information with entities that partner with us to provide these offerings; 

· We may share information (and will attempt to provide you with prior notice, to the extent legally permissible) in response to a request for information if we believe disclosure is in accordance with, or required by, any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request; 

· We may share information in response to an emergency if we believe it's necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily harm to a person; 

· We may share information if we believe your actions are inconsistent with our user agreements, or other Steemit policies, or to protect the rights, property, and safety of ourselves and others; 

· We may share information between and among Steemit, and its current and future parents, affiliates, subsidiaries, and other companies under common control and ownership; and 

· We may share information with your consent or at your direction. 

Here’s another interesting article on intellectual property ownership on SteemIt and selling advertising space on SteemIt: https://steemit.com/security/@personz/who-owns-a-post-intellectual-property-data-ownership-and-content-licensing-on-steemit 

All in all, it seems you use social media and SteemIt at your own risk. Given the above information, your personal information, the information you post on this site, and your activity on this site are not safe from collection and resale. I think most people deep down realize this when it comes to their use of social media. They know what they post and what they share are out there for the world to see and use. Mark Zuckerberg said it best when he said: “People are more voyeuristic than what I would have thought.” 

While I’m not suggesting it’s right or moral for social media companies and their associates to use your information for personal gain, far from it. I’m suggesting that we shouldn’t be surprised when it happens, that we open ourselves up to use and abuse from the moment we sign up for that account, and that our actions and information could at any moment end up in a Russian troll farm. And when it happens and comes to light, like it is now for Facebook, we shouldn’t be so shocked. Because deep down, we knew it was going to happen. After all, we agreed to it when we consented to sign up. 

Good luck out there! And may your information and privacy remain forever yours. 

Chris